Growing Up- A Hime-chan no Ribbion Fanfic
by Richard Beaubien
Summary: Himeko Nonohara is now 23, but has she really grown up?


  
From beaubird@UVic.CA Mon Nov 17 16:14:55 1997  
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 20:16:52 -0800 (PST)  
From: "R. D. Beaubien"   
To: beaubird@mail.anime.usacomputers.net  
Subject: [FFML] [Hime-chan's] Hime-chan's No Ribbon Short Fic (fwd)  
  
  
  
Richard Beaubien Presents  
  
A Hime-chan's no Ribbon Short Fic   
  
Growing Up  
  
*****  
  
It was a cool fall Sunday afternoon, with the sun shining through  
the window in an attempt to provide heat to the room. The light itself  
glistened off the table, where their was room to glisten that is. The  
table itself was mostly covered with lose papers and other remnants of  
stuff that suggested the desk was in constant (though not organized) use.  
Only one corner of the desk seemed to be in proper order, and it contained  
a family picture, a stuffed lion, and a slightly worn red ribbon.  
  
A small sigh could be heard as the door slowly opened to reveal   
a young 23 year old girl drying her hair with a towel. With a rather loud  
sigh Nonohara Himeko jumped onto her bed, and began to stare at the  
ceiling, her long hair spread all over the pillow. She smirked to herself,  
the decision to grow her hair long had certainly lead to many problems,  
one of them being hair care. But then it also created many good things  
too, one of them being that she absolutely looked stunning with long hair.  
If their was any doubts that the young tomboy would ever grow into a woman  
they were certainly put to rest when the met Himeko today. Even  
Hibano-san was startled by her looks, and that caused Himeko to grin.  
  
But it was a Sunday, and since Himeko was planning to spend most  
of the day indoors cleaning up from her recent move which meant neatness  
in the hair department was not required. After all she had to finish the  
moving job she started last week. Or course that could be done after a few  
minutes of napping on the bed. Which was certainly well within the plans  
of Himeko for this day. She laughed and turned over again, this time to  
face the window and the light that glistened off the desk and it's  
contents. One region in particular seemed to shine brighter than the most,  
it was the region with the stuffed doll and the ribbon.   
  
It was the area of the desk that held Pokota.   
  
For awhile Himeko just stared into the eye's of the stuffed doll  
on the desk, and even though it's gaze remained the same as when she first  
picked up (as far as Himeko could remember, her memories where a bit foggy  
as to when she picked up Pokota) she almost felt as if the eye's held a  
bit of anticipation to them. A growing anticaption, almost as if it wanted  
to talk to Himeko. Himeko almost laughed at that thought, a talking  
stuffed animal was something kid's believed in. It was almost as silly as  
believing in a magic kingdom, flying broom and a ribbon that could turn  
you into another person. Himeko once believed in these things when she was  
a kid, back when she was going to school with Hibano-san and I-chan,  
having classes with Gouri-sensei, and going to school with Daichi.  
  
Himeko frowned at that thought, it was when Daichi moved away that  
she started to grow up. At first he moved to another district in Tokyo  
when they were still in junior high. But somehow they kept their  
relationship kept together, as Daichi somehow commuted to school so  
they could still be together. After they were destined to be together, or  
so Himeko thought after visiting the future. Of course visiting the future  
isn't possible, and Daichi and Himeko weren't destined to be together.  
  
It had all started with Daichi moving really, Himeko remembered.  
It was when he moved that Himeko started to grow up. It was when  
they were 17, and Daichi suddenly moved to Osaka. It wasn't really  
his's fault, and his father really couldn't pass up the job as a police  
chief. They tried to stay together, visiting each other on the weekends  
and going on trips all over Japan. But eventually the presure of finals  
caught up to the both of them, and they eventually stopped seeing each  
other to study. And after that it was not all that surprising to find out  
that started to date other people. For all intents a purposes that part of  
life was over for Himeko, she had grown up.  
  
Again she stared into the eyes of Pokota who seemed more and more  
eager to talk to her, which was rather impossible for an inanimate object  
to do. She wondered why she kept the old doll and the ribbon around.  
Perhaps it was to remember Daichi and the times they had together. But  
that wasn't the reason really, since the two of them had met a couple of  
times over the last few years. They had since become friends, and have  
even shown each other their respective dates thought they were often  
doomed to failure. Of course there was no talk of them getting back  
together. They were just friends weren't they. After all she had grown up.  
  
Pokota seemed to increase his glare at Himeko when she thought  
that. It almost looked like it was going to leap out at her if she didn't  
talk to it. But it couldn't talk could it, nothing that was inanimate could  
talk to anyone. It just simply couldn't happen, could it. She sighed, the  
memories still vivid of her changing into other people which was just her  
imagination. But then she did change into other people when she went on  
stage an acted. She did it every night, and she did it so well that it  
became her job. A job so important that she didn't need to think of  
childish things, that she didn't have a chance to win back Daichi. That  
there really was an Erika out there, looking at her through a crystal ball  
and sharing her tragedies with her along with her success. That couldn't  
happen...  
  
But they we're vivid in her mind, memories that seemed to flood.  
Memories that stopped her from giving Pokota to Yumeko when she went to  
university. Sure she kept it in a box for the first year, but she just  
couldn't bear to part with it. Perhaps it could comfort her when she  
needed it, and it seemed to do it when ever she struggled through tests or  
assignments (though it still puzzled her as to why she brought it out of  
it's box at times like that...). It was her friend, her best friend  
sometimes...And even though it couldn't talk...  
  
If it could talk though they would still be friends Himeko  
smiled. Perhaps they could share some of the hurt she had, the fact that  
she really never got over Daichi. The fact that when ever she met him she  
always wondered if they could get together again. But that was an immature  
thought, and she had to grow up. She had to get over Daichi. And that  
meant giving up all thoughts of him, and all of these fantasies about  
magic. They where immature, weren't they.  
  
Again Pokota glared at her, this boring deep into the sole of  
Himeko. She had changed, she was no longer a young tomBoy, she was full  
grown woman. Yet still, those feeling nagged at her. She was a grown up  
now. She couldn't stay in the past, she had to move on. She had to give up  
her childish things. But what was childish, she thought to herself. It was  
imagining things like the magic kingdom and brooms wasn't it? Or maybe it  
was something more, maybe it was dedication to her friends. Maybe it was  
just believing to something and sticking to it.   
  
Slowly she made her way over to the ribbon, all the while  
thinking that grown up really shouldn't think dolls could talk. They  
weren't human, or intelligent. But then a grown up shouldn't just abandon  
a friend. And Pokota was her friend, he was their through thick and  
thin...He was with her always. Holding back a tear, she slowly put the  
ribbon on and waited to see what happened. When nothing did, she slowly  
walked back to the bed and just lay there. It was all just a dream, wasn't  
it.  
  
"Hime-chan?"  
  
"Pokota!?!"  
  
"HIME-CHAN!!!"   
  
It was real, Himeko cried as she ran over to hug her friend. The  
tears of the past few years. At last they could be reuniated because she  
had over come her stubbornness, a stubbornness that nearly cost a friendship.  
"Pokota, I have to make a phone call, Okay...Well talk after that."  
Hime-chan smiled as she placed the lion down.  
  
"But to whom?"  
  
"An old friend, and hopefully a future friend," Hime-chan grinned  
as she left the room. "But first, let's do what we used to do to cheer our  
selves up?"  
  
"Really!!!"  
  
"Yup, Let's do it...Ike, Ike, Go go JUMP!!!" Himeko yelled as she  
jumped in the air, finally growing up after all these years..  
  
The End...  
  
C&C always welcome...   
  
Ja ne!!  
  
Richard Beaubien  
----------------  
Matsunaga Mikage "Chemistry Forever!!!"  
  
Fanfic homepage http://www.anime.usacomputers.net/~beaubird  
  
  



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